Il natural desiderio di sapere - Pontifical Academy of Sciences

ON THE NATURAL DESIRE FOR KNOWLEDGE 105give the reward. 16 Eminence in knowledge, as it is more sublime, is also suspectto the eminent in fortune: similarly the great riches offered by the sciencesare usually not much appreciated by those who have reached powerby other ways; and this very worthy instrument can truly become hatefulwhere one suspects that it may be wielded with bad intentions; nor is it usualto love good as much as to fear evil, for which reason, as human ambitionsees the literati as both retired and low, the desire for a similar condition isinstantly quenched or at least cooled, and it prefers to think of those waysthat can both elevate it to and decorate it with the longed for superiority.Nor only for these ends, toward which for the most part one courses byall ways, by all means, but also for the ordinary tasks and dealings, whicheither for himself or for his friends and family must be done, it happensquite easily that men are involved in and occupied with all kinds of businessso that, gradually, distracted from seconding the native desire, theyremain totally alienated from it, and in every other work involved andentangled. Time is short and actions turn out to be long, soon the day isstolen from us and it quickly by itself escapes us, and in the very thought ofacquiring it we come to lose it; if our own convenience, if a friend, if theaccomplishment 17 keeps us, it goes away. Oh how much more easily, andhow many of our days, are taken from us by business, of which, whethersought after or accepted by us, so much and so many kinds happen uponus. Oh how we abuse 18 reason in them, and with what subtlety and diligence!If in order to eat, drink, dress, inhabit, dominate and similar endswe serve ourselves of it, oh how inopportune, oh what an unspeakableabuse! All of these ends, which aim at nothing other than a comfortable andpleasurable course of life, we attain in common with the brutes who, withoutany use of reason, seek after and attain them all; and yet we do not hesitateto lower our thoughts to such competition and debase in such abusesthe gift of reason, abandoning its proper use and our natural inclination,and we thus much more easily embrace every other exercise except ourown, as opportunities, our companions, our own comfort and pleasuremove us more intimately and with greater efficacy.16 Here and elsewhere, especially in this first part of his speech, Cesi echoes theacute moral-psychological observations, and more generally the tone, which also marktwo other important texts, the Zibaldone and Il conclave di Gregorio XV. See them in F.Cesi, Opere scelte (ed. C. Vinti – A. Allegra), Perugia 2003, pp. 87-95, pp. 101-121.17 Of some task or mission.18 Employ badly.